Gith (race)

Greyhawk Creature

Gith
A githyanki riding a red dragon faces a githzerai. Art by Zoltan Boros (2018)
General information
First appearance:	Fiend Folio first edition

The gith are a race of humanoids who were enslaved by mind flayers for countless generations. Some sages claim they were once descended from humans, while others maintained that their original race was in fact unknown. After breaking free from their enslavement, philosophical differences led to a bitter internal conflict, which divided the gith into two main different races at constant odds with each other: the githyanki and the githzerai.

Description

Gith are tall and emaciated-looking humanoids. They have pale yellow skin, sometimes with greenish or brownish tones. Their skulls are long and angular, with deep-set eyes, flattened noses, and pointed, serrated ears. Typical hair colors include black, red, russet, and sometimes gray.

Society

The gith are an utterly sundered race. Divided by generations of conflict and ideological differences, the two main sects of the gith people regard each other with nothing but contempt, hate, and wariness. The intense hatred which divided the race was further exploited and amplified by the mind flayers themselves, who kept spies in both githyanki and githzerai communities tasked with stoking their ancient rivalries.

However, a splinter faction of renegade githyanki and githzerai known as the Sha'sal Khou seek to overcome the differences between the two races and bring them together as a single people. They worked secretly within the two races discouraging violence against each other in the hopes of becoming able to call their people simply "gith".

Two other subraces existed among the gith:

• The isolationist "pirates of Gith" chose to remain in the Prime Material plane and did not follow their cousins into the Astral Plane or Limbo. Instead, they chose a lifestyle of piracy in wildspace, although they retained their extremely militarized society.
• The githvyrik, a small group of gith who did not identify as either githyanki or githzerai.

Language

The githyanki and the githzerai each speak their own dialect of the Gith language, which uses a unique form of writing called tir'su. It is an alphabetical set of runes in which words are formed in circles instead of linearly, with the letters of a given word linked in a ring. Githyanki arrange the characters clockwise from the top, while githzerai arranged them counter-clockwise from the bottom. Sentences are formed by a series of these rings.

History

Origins

The ancient origin of the gith is clouded in mystery. Even the name of the original race, which some referred to as "the forerunners", was lost to time. Some sources claimed that they were originally humans from a world called Pharagos, located in an unknown crystal sphere which had been conquered by the illithids during the expansion of their empire, and who had been slowly altered by the mind flayers' genetic experiments. Others claimed that they might have been created by the illithids themselves through mixing humanoid hosts with powers from the Far Realm.

A githyanki attacks a mind flayer. Art by Wayne Reynolds, 2005.

It has been suggested that the enslavement of the gith and the duergar happened during the early expansion of the mind flayer empire. Whether the gith were human or some unknown humanoid race, centuries of servitude and selective breeding changed them considerably. In a practical sense, the gith are in fact made by the mind flayers.

Although revolts were not uncommon among the mind flayers' slaves, for a long time they posed no challenge. However, over time some slaves developed some resistance against their masters' mind control and started secretly improving their psionic abilities. When they judged that the time was right, the forerunners, under the guidance of their leader Gith, revolted in an unprecedented uprising, causing a chain reaction that culminated in the death of countless elder brains and ushered the downfall of the entire illithid empire. In less than a year, the devastation brought the mind flayers to the brink of extinction and forced the surviving enclaves into hiding, a downfall from which they never fully recovered.

Civil War and Separation

Soon after conquering their freedom, Gith ordered the continuation of the war effort. The mind flayers were to be hunted down to the last one and the gith were to establish a new empire based on conquest. At this point, Zerthimon, a gith who had gathered a significant following during the fight for freedom, challenged Gith's leadership and her motives, arguing that she would end up leading the people into a similar tyranny that their former masters enforced.

"The githyanki and the githzerai were so profoundly scarred by their enslavement to the mind flayers that they forget they were one race, united. Having won their freedom, they wage war against each other with a hatred none can fully comprehend." - Aristul the Yellow"

The disagreement led to a violent civil war among the gith. Zerthimon was killed, and his followers, who called themselves "githzerai" (meaning "those who spurn Gith" in the Gith language), retreated to Limbo in defeat–but not before dealing substantial damage to Gith's forces, which could no longer sustain a continuing campaign against the mind flayers. This internal struggle gave sufficient time for the surviving mind flayers to retreat and hide in well defended underground locations.

Gith led her surviving followers, who at this point started calling themselves "githyanki" (meaning "children of Gith"), to the former illithid settlements in the Astral Plane, where they could regroup and gather their strength in order to resume their plans of conquering the entire multiverse, as well as exterminating both the mind flayers and the githzerai.

Thus, the two divided races remained bitter enemies that constantly thwarted each other's plans. The githyanki expanded their conquering efforts to include raids into githzerai strongholds. The githzerai, while also deploying missions to root out and destroy illithid settlements, maintained a steady effort to oppose the githyanki militaristic expansion. This enduring conflict prevented either race from obtaining a decisive victory against the mind flayers and brought the conflict to a stalemate.

Vlaakith I was an advisor to Gith and helped seal the pact between red dragons and the githyanki. All subsequent queens of the githyanki have been named after her. Vlaakith CLVI, the immediate predecessor of the current lich-queen, ruled for over six centuries, becoming a lich at some point during her reign, before being destroyed by Xinfyrit, first of the devourers. The last queen of the githyanki, Vlaakith CLVII, died after ascending the throne without giving birth to an heir, but (like her predecessor) returned as a lich. Vlaakith CLVII has ruled the githyanki for well over a thousand years, making her the longest-reigning monarch the githyanki have ever had. Her home, the Castle Susurrus, is in the githyanki capital city, Tu'narath, which is built on the god-isle of a deceased power known only as "The One in the Void."

Notable Gith

• Vlaakith, the Lich-Queen of the Gith
• Zetch'r'r, a githyanki warlord and A member of the Sha’sal Khouc
• Al'chaia, the githyanki leader of the Stardock crèche in the late 15^th century DR.
• Vhostym, a githvyrik.
• Yrlakka, a githzerai member of the Sha'sal Khou.

Appendix

See Also

• Pronouncement of Two Skies

Appearances

Adventures

Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

Novels

Dawn of Night

References

Bibliography

• Cook, Monte. A Guide to the Astral Plane. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1996.
• Perkins, Christopher. "The Lich-Queen's Beloved." Dungeon #100. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2003.
• Schwalb, Robert J.. "A Tyranny of Souls". Dungeon #168. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, Jul 2009.
• Stephens, Owen K.C. "The Ecology of the Devourer." Dragon #355. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2007.
• Turnbull, Don, ed. Fiend Folio. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1981.
• Wyatt, James. "Incursion: A World Under Siege." Dragon #309. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2003.
• Turnbull, Don. Fiend Folio. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1981. Item code TSR2012.
• Monstrous Manual. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1993. Item code TSR2140.
• Smith, Lester and Wolfgang Baur. Planes of Chaos. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1994. Item code TSR2603.
• Mearls, Mike, Jeremy Crawford and Christopher Perkins. Monster Manual. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2014. Item code A9218.
• Baker, Richard, James Jacobs and Steve Winter. Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2007. Item code 17741.

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Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

Topic	Type	Description	Product	Page/Card/Image
Citadel of Gith {Floating City} (Limbo)	Settlement		Manual of the Planes, AD&D 1e	99
Citadel of Gith {Floating City} (Limbo)	Settlement		Manual of the Planes, AD&D 1e	99
Floating City {Citadel of Gith} (Limbo)	Settlement		Reference	SEE Citadel of Gith {Floating City} (Limbo)
Gith	Monster		Monstrous Arcana: The Illithiad, AD&D 2e	39
Gith	Monster		Manual of the Planes, AD&D 1e	98
Gith	Monster		Oerth Journal #18	14
Gith	Monster		PHBR5 - The Complete Psionics Handbook	124
Gith	Non-player character		TSR Jam 1999	20
Githyanki	Adventure		OP1 Tales of the Outer Planes, AD&D 1e	86-87
Githyanki	Monster		Dragon magazine #067	39-42
Githyanki	Monster		Fiend Folio, AD&D 1e	43-45
Githyanki	Monster		Monstrous Arcana: The Illithiad, AD&D 2e	58-60
Githyanki	Monster		Monstrous Compendium - Planescape Appendix I	46, 47
Githyanki	Monster		MC8 - Monstrous Compendium - Outer Planes Appendix	Insert (Githyanki)
Githyanki	Monster		Monstrous Manual, AD&D 2e	153, 154
Githyanki	Monster		Monstrous Manual, AD&D 2e (Premium Edition)	153, 154
Githyanki	Monster		Monster Manual 1, D&D 3.5e (Premium Edition)	127, 128
Githyanki	Monster		Monster Manual 1, D&D 4e (Deluxe Edition)	128, 129, 277
Githyanki	Monster		Monster Manual 1, D&D 5e	158-159, 160
Githyanki	Monster		Manual of the Planes, AD&D 1e	3, 61, 65, 66, 67, 72, 99
Githyanki	Monster		Oerth Journal #21	48,53
Githyanki	Monster		OP1 Tales of the Outer Planes, AD&D 1e	86, 87, 92, 93
Githyanki	Monster		PHBR5 - The Complete Psionics Handbook	124
Githyanki	Monster		Saltmarsh Encounters, D&D 5e	13
Githyanki	Monster		Slavers, AD&D 2e	107
Githyanki	Monster		White Dwarf #012	9
Githyanki	Monster		White Dwarf #BOV1	43
Githyanki Fortress	Settlement	Defensive Structure,	OP1 Tales of the Outer Planes, AD&D 1e	45-47
Githyanki Outpost	Settlement	Defensive Structure,	Dragon magazine #067	39-42
Githzerai	Adventure		OP1 Tales of the Outer Planes, AD&D 1e	42, 47, 87-88
Githzerai	Monster		Fiend Folio, AD&D 1e	45
Githzerai	Monster		Monstrous Arcana: The Illithiad, AD&D 2e	58, 59, 60
Githzerai	Monster		MC8 - Monstrous Compendium - Outer Planes Appendix	Insert (Githzerai)
Githzerai	Monster		Monster Manual 1, D&D 5e	159, 161
Githzerai	Monster		Manual of the Planes, AD&D 1e	65, 66, 67, 72, 97, 99
Githzerai	Monster		OP1 Tales of the Outer Planes, AD&D 1e	87, 88
Githzerai	Monster		PHBR5 - The Complete Psionics Handbook	124
Necklace, Silver (Githzerai)	Item		OP1 Tales of the Outer Planes, AD&D 1e	88
Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith (The Great Githzerai)	Non-player character	Male, Githzerai, Ftr16/Mu23,	Manual of the Planes, AD&D 1e	99